Stephen Lursen Art

I am pushing myself to continue experimenting and creating new types of visual art. I will be quite honest and go ahead and say that I have no self-perceived unique style that carries from painting to painting, and I am ok with that.  I know that I could take any work of art I have made, create 9 similar to that one and then I could show a series of paintings that would communicate my "style". But, because I don't want to do that right now, I keep pressing onward. I took an old painting of mine that was sitting...

I graduated from Grad School in May of 2012 with my M.F.A. which meant that for the first time in 3 years I was free to paint as an artist without the pressure of obligatory defense.  Don't get me wrong, now that over a year has passed, I would enjoy going to a critique discussing art. It's just that in June of 2012 All I had ever known as an artist, was synchronized with being a student for... (let's see, K-12, then 4.5 years of undergrad, then 3 years of grad school...) a long time. So the very first painting...

I finished another small, mixed media painting for a potential kid's class.  I used collage (book text, printed photo of fox, ribbon), hot glue for texture, acrylic, and ink. For my adhesives I used Mod Podge, but I highly recommend Golden Matt Medium. It has a better texture, lower odor, and faster drying time. Let's get started!  I started with an 8"x10" canvas and collaged a background of scrap-booking paper.  Torn book text was applied to add texture and variety. I cut three pieces of ribbon. I moved them around quite a bit to figure out where I wanted them...

Thanks for checking out my blog! Here is a step by ste tutorial on how I made my most recent wreath! Low budget too! Supplies list: old book for its pages. I love the old paperbacks that turn yellow due to being printed on acidic paper. 1 wreath ring (you can also make your own out of a couple old wire coat hangers.) Ribbon. decorative elements - I used some fake berry branches I bought on discount and some cute hedgehogs made out of wood chips also %50 off.  Lastly, I used a hot-glue gun and glue to put everything...

I just finished a new project and I would love to walk you through my steps to the final painting. I started off with a blank, new, primed, white, 8"x10" canvas.  I looked for a scrapbook paper that I really liked for an easy background.  Once I found the right scrapbook paper for me, I collaged it onto the canvas and cut away the excess paper. Next step was to print off a predetermined photograph on standard printer paper.  I turned the color photo to black and white so that I could determine for myself what the colors would be....